SAN DIEGO — Anthony Ortega did almost everything imaginable in a music career that stretched over 70 years that included leading a weekly Sunday jam session — into his mid-90s — until his health began to fail in August.
He collaborated with Frank Sinatra and Frank Zappa, Tony Bennett and Tony Orlando, Marvin Gaye and Quincy Jones. He performed on film soundtracks, including playing the bravura improvised sax solo in the Oscar-nominated "An Unmarried Woman," and was in the house bands for ABC's "The Julie Andrews Show" and "The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour." He also taught jazz master classes at universities in France and made cutting-edge albums that won international acclaim.
But there is at least one notable thing Ortega — who died Sunday at the age of 94 — did not do, and it was by choice.
